Rivers and river processes

• Erosion


  The process of wind or water wearing away the land.
• What is deposition?


  The process in which material is laid down.
• What causes deposition to occur?


  When water has lost the energy to carry sediment.
• Abrasion


  Sandpaper action of rocks being carried in the water scrapping away the bed and banks of a river/ sea bed.
• Attrition


  Rocks being carried by the river smash together and break into smaller, smoother and rounder particles.
• hydraulic action


  when the sheer force of water brakes down a rivers bank or bed
• corrosion/solution


  The process of water dissolving a rivers' load as well as its bed and banks.
• Traction


  Large rocks being dragged along a river bed.
• Saltation


  Rocks that are too small to roll but too large to be suspended in the flow bounce along in the flow of the water.
• Suspension


  Particles carried along in the flow of the river that are still visible
• Solution


  Soluble particles are dissolved in the water and carried along in the flow.
• Freeze-thaw weathering (mechanical)


  1. Water enters cracks in the rock.

  2. When temperatures drop, the water freezes and expands causing the crack to widen.

  3. The ice melts and water makes its way deeper into the cracks.

  4. The process repeats itself until the rock splits entirely.
• In situ


  In one place/ without movement.